What a lot of people don't understand about winning the lottery is that it really isn't all that hard as long as you understand one key element of the entire equation: it's math, not luck, that matters. Specifically, it's the extrapolatables. You have to understand how the extrapolatables work to really get a clear picture of your real chances and what a sound investment in your lottery strategy will be. See, it's popular in news media to quote a figure you may have heard before: each player has a 1 in 175,000,000 chance of winning. Which sounds, let's be frank, pretty bad. But that's just the raw data with no extrapolatables added to it!

So let's examine what this truly means. 1 in 175,000,000 means that every time you play the lottery, you've got to play 175,000,000 times before you win. Which gives a totally advantage to people who've been playing for a long time -- I mean, some guy who's been buying tickets for years versus you, when it's your first time? Why is that even allowed? It shouldn't be if they want a fair competition. So, to even the playing field, what you really want to do is assemble a team of people who've been playing the lottery for a long time. So, like, say you have five friends who are experienced lottery players:

Buford: has played a total of 43 timesHenrietta: has played 112 timesArtie: has played 89 timesGomer: has played 1,122 times, but those are just scratch-offs so they only count half (561)Lucinda: has played 321 times

Now, add up (extrapolate) the total plays you have on your team: 1687.

So, now your chances, including yours, would appear to be 1688 in 175,000,000. But extrapolate that again and you find that that it's really works down to about 1 in 103,672. A great improvement, I'd say! So now each member of your team only needs to buy that many tickets (103, 672) to have a virtually 100 percent chance of winning.

Yes, of course, that still represents a significant investment. Tickets cost $2 each, so if you extrapolate that cost across each player, it works out to be a $207,344 investment. But consider this: The jackpot, after taxes, will amount to about $273 million. Divide that among your six team members, it's works out to $45.5 million apiece. A $45.5 million return on an initial investment of under a quarter million? Banks would salivate at the opportunity to loan on that sort of return. And you could of course decrease the initial investment by adding members to your team, although in the scenario described above it would be even a better idea to just dump Buford, who's kind of a jackass anyway, and replace him with someone who's been playing the lottery longer. Remember, in the end, it's not the *number* of people in your team that matters -- it's how many chances they've already used up. Always consider the extrapolatables, people. Always.

sid244:ginko: My boss is collecting $2 from us for the office pool so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.

Who plays stratagy? EP the numbers and let them ride. The idea is that you're not a part of half of the building that is left behind when the other half wins and quits. ($2 is ok for my santiy of not cleaing up the mess left behind).

Make sure you get a copy of tickets.

We do, he's very straight forward and emails us the tickets in a PDF so we can check them at home. If I come in and no one else is my dept the next morning, I know I missed the numbers.

Special J:In 2006, eight meatpacking workers - called the "Nebraska 8? - struck gold in Lincoln, Neb., with a single ticket chosen by a computer. They won $365 million - the biggest lottery payout in U.S. history.

Before they even get into their 'tips' they pretty much shoot down their own article.

If I win. I'm going to dissappear for one year.Talk only to my financial planner.Enjoy a long vacation.Come back and bulldoze my entire property.Dig it out to bedrock and springs.Build an underground home with bat cave garage doors, swimming pool, and indoor fireplace where I can burn whole logs and stack the fire with a fron end loader.

NeoCortex42:I don't get why everybody gets so excited about the giant jackpots and suddenly puts down tens or hundreds of dollars on tickets. Was $40 or $50 million not enough? Is it not worth the cost of a cup of coffee until it hits ludicrous speed?

I'll buy an occasional ticket. I figure I'd be fortunate to hit that million dollar second prize. A jackpot, regardless of size, would be plenty for me for life.

Pocket Ninja:What a lot of people don't understand about winning the lottery is that it really isn't all that hard as long as you understand one key element of the entire equation: it's math, not luck, that matters. Specifically, it's the extrapolatables.